# Sammy Sosa and the corked bat

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sammy-sosa-and-the-corked-bat/183926>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 24, 2003, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sammy-sosa-and-the-corked-bat/183926 "2003-06-24T02:39:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sammy-sosa-and-the-corked-bat/183926/1 "2003-06-24T02:39:16Z")

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I recently read an article that took a very ho-hum attitude to the corked bat incident. The author stated that he had no doubt that Sosa’s explanation was the truth because Sosa has broken **several dozen** bats in the last few years and only this most recent one was corked. He felt that it defied logic to believe that Sosa was regularly cheating. Is this statement about the number of broken bats true?

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**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sammy-sosa-and-the-corked-bat/183926/2 "2003-06-24T03:06:25Z")

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It certainly sounds plausible. You do see a lot of bats broken.

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sammy-sosa-and-the-corked-bat/183926/3 "2003-06-24T03:09:34Z")

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Absolutely. Major leaguers’ bats shatter on a regular basis. A hard fastball on the handle will quite often blow a bat apart.

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**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sammy-sosa-and-the-corked-bat/183926/4 "2003-06-24T03:27:35Z")

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I’d bet he’s broken at least 100 bats in the past 7 or so seasons. Not to mention the bats that have just cracked a bit, and he had to get a new one. Corked bats tend not to crack just a bit.